Nouns have traditionally been defined as words for people, places, things, and ideas. A noun phrase consists of a noun plus any modifiers, complements, and determiners that provide more information about the noun. Pronouns, which are a subcategory of nouns, are words that take the place of nouns and noun phrases.

In grammar, a direct object is a word, phrase, or clause that follows and receives the action of a mono-transitive verb. Nouns, pronouns, and noun phrases most frequently function as direct objects in English grammar. Examples of nouns including pronouns and noun phrases as direct objects include the following:

My rabbit eats carrots. (noun)

Some dogs despise men. (noun)

The committee elected no one. (pronoun)

She loves him. (pronoun)

The hurricane destroyed the extremely tall building next to the ancient bowling alley. (noun phrase)

Author: Heather Johnson
Heather earned a BA in English studies with a minor in creative writing from Illinois State University in May 2007 and an MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2009. In December 2011, she finished an MS in English studies with an emphasis in linguistics at Illinois State University for which she wrote a thesis on multiple modals in American English.